Beyond the Bloodline-Chapter 389: Black Lightning

Silence reigned.

Miranda’s heterochromatic eyes met Salenor’s black eyes, and for a moment, neither of them moved.

Slowly, Salenor’s gaze dropped from Miranda’s face to the severed head dangling from her hand, then lifted again to meet her eyes.

Slowly, Miranda’s fingers holding the Devil Supreme’s hair loosened, the severed head silently floating away.

’Ashen Crucible.’

Her magic power lingering in the surrounding space was instantly infused with her Authority, and in a split second, the fabric of space-time across the entire universe was dominated by her power, her surroundings transforming into a volcanic planetoid where seas and rivers of purple lava flowed freely and fissures erupted with streams of purple fire.

The same instant her Domain was declared, Salenor’s hands were charged with black lightning, his Second Concretization forming two daggers which he gripped in either hand, while his Third sheathed his body in cosmic energy, shielding him from the effects and special abilities of Miranda’s Domain.

Miranda’s wolf features reappeared as purple energy erupted from her body, and the mark of a snake appeared on Salenor’s head, his pupils changing from normal circular to slit reptilian.

No words were needed between them.

Both understood that the other was the enemy, and the enemy needed to be eliminated.

That understanding was the basis for the sequence of actions they took in the next second.

Salenor immediately charged towards Miranda in a streak of black lightning, his speed several hundred times faster than light itself.

But in the same span it took him to close the gap, Miranda dipped her right hand into a patch of space that opened up under her left arm, accessing her pocket dimension, a personal space she created separately from her Cosmic Hearth, and grabbed the hilt of a sword.

Not an Aspect Forged weapon, but a physical Cosmic Weapon.

The moment her fingers curled around its long handle inside its distinctive knuckle guard, the grip produced five spikes that stabbed through her hand, drinking her blood as its silver blade instantly turned crimson with the absorbed blood.

That blood blade was then engulfed in purple flames, and she fully drew the sword, unleashing a horizontal slash packed with more power than that which birthed this universe, cutting through everything in its path.

However, Salenor’s black-lightning clad body easily reacted to this FTL slash and leapt over it, letting it tear through space and slam into the dimensional walls of Miranda’s Domain, its energy absorbed into those walls to further strengthen the Domain and keep Salenor trapped inside.

Miranda instantly pulled the sword back, gripping it with both hands and letting the broadsword drink more of her blood, further enhancing her physical prowess and kinetic vision, which she used to track the streak of black light arcing around her.

Her ears twitched, and she immediately spun around, violet flames erupting from her sword as she swung it again, unleashing another universe-dividing slash, but by the time her hand completed the swinging motion, Salenor was already several hundred light-years away from the space she had slashed.

’He’s fast! Is it an Aspect? Or a Dictum...? Perhaps...Alacrity and Lightning?’

Miranda analysed his powers as her pupils darted around, trying to keep track of the streak of black light zipping through the space around her, veering at changing angles and directions midair.

She spun around once more, charging her sword with energy as she activated an AOE technique, aiming to burn the space Salenor was darting through.

’Ashen Annihila—!’

**SWOOSH!!

Miranda’s technique activation was interrupted, as in the same instant she attempted it, Salenor blitzed behind her, his right dagger slashing down at her back, forcing Miranda to spin around as she swung her sword with her left hand, deflecting the strike.

She tossed the sword into her right hand and planted her foot on the floor of her domain, swinging the blade down with the intent to behead him in a single strike, but Salenor swiftly ducked under her slash, then leapt into the air and spun, unleashing a kick which she blocked with her left hand, though it pushed her back, and immediately after came Salenor’s dagger piercing straight toward her head.

A gauntlet appeared around Miranda’s left forearm as she raised it to block the dagger tip, instantly swinging her sword with her right, but her blade cut through nothing but the space Salenor had already vacated.

Black lightning crackled as Miranda spun around to try and lock onto Salenor, her eyes narrowing as she strained to follow his movements.

At the same time, Salenor’s eyes narrowed as he caught how Miranda’s pupils were tracking him, even if they lagged by a few microseconds.

’She’s keeping up with my movements?’

The man zipped through space again, dashing right behind Miranda and aiming for a low kick, but Miranda leapt to avoid it and instantly spun, delivering a downward diagonal slash which he dodged by a paper-thin margin, catching his reflection on the glossy crimson blade, and by the time flames erupted from it, Salenor was already several light years away, his feet landing against the rocky floor of the domain.

’No...’

Salenor charged in again, leaving trails of lightning as he zipped from above this time, and just before his blade reached the back of Miranda’s head, her wolf ears twitched and she instantly ducked, then retaliated with an upward slash that he avoided.

’She’s acting half on instinct.’

The man came to this conclusion as he arced around Miranda, his assumption proving correct since Miranda was only barely reacting to his speed, even with her half-wolf form active and her sword amplifying her power.

Even though this was her domain, where she could sense every trace of movement within it.

That alone showed how impossibly fast the man was, and how bad of a matchup he’d be for Miranda if she hadn’t immediately locked him inside her Domain.

’It can’t just be Alacrity and Lightning. There have to be other Dictums boosting his speed. His Third Concretization likely isn’t only shielding him from my Domain, but boosting him further too...’

Miranda was analysing Salenor just as he was analysing her, and as she spun around after sensing intent from behind, she locked eyes with the rapidly approaching Salenor, a black light flashing across her pupils faster than she could instinctively close them.

’!!’

Cosmic energy instantly invaded Miranda’s body, coursing through her veins and down to the very cells that formed her physical body.

Her movements immediately stiffened, and she couldn’t swing her sword before Salenor’s lightning-clad legs reached her, only managing to cross her arms in front of her chest to block.

**BOOOOM!!!!

The impact of his kick crashing against her gauntlets shook the Domain, and circuit-like patterns of black and white light snaked down his legs, the cosmic energy within the strike doubling and causing cracks to splinter across her gauntlet as her body was hurled through space.

Miranda spun through the air and landed on the ground, stabbing her sword into the floor to slow her feet skidding across it, but no sooner had she done this than a bolt of black lightning shot toward the side of her head.

’What just happened?!’

She swung her sword upward as she racked her brain trying to figure out what had slowed her movements just then, blocking the first bolt, then spinning to block the second, leaping back to avoid the third, and snapping her gaze to the right as she sensed the Four—

’No!’

Miranda realised too late that the ’Fourth Attack’ she sensed wasn’t a bolt of cosmic lightning like before, but Salenor himself, and as she turned to block it, she inadvertently locked eyes with him again, only for a microsecond, but long enough for his power to take effect.

A black circuit mark instantly appeared on her skin, spreading from the sides of her eyes and across her face, and by the time Salenor’s dagger reached her, it had already covered her entire upper body.

Miranda raised her blade to block the descending dagger, the ground quaking from the impact as cosmic energies clashed, cracks splintering through the fabric of spacetime.

’A Curse!? It bypassed my resistances!’

From the black marks on her skin, lightning burst out, tearing into Miranda’s flesh and stiffening her movements, creating an opening for Salenor to spin anticlockwise to build momentum for a high kick aimed at the side of her head, one she barely blocked with her left hand.

The impact sent Miranda hurtling through the air, her body crashing down on the floor and ragdolling across the land.

She came to a stop after a few seconds, but her ears twitched and she instantly pushed herself off the ground, avoiding Salenor’s descending axe kick that would’ve definitely cracked open her skull had it landed.

***KRACKBOOOM!!!

Space ruptured, and a hole was punched right through her domain from the impact, the backlash hitting Miranda at the same instant the curse mark activated again, this time unleashing both lightning and small whirlwinds that spiralled around her arms and shredded her skin, each slice chipping away at her overall durability.

’Damage over time?!’

Miranda’s shredded flesh bubbled up and instantly healed, and faster than Salenor could do more than send out a signal, she tapped into her cosmic energy reserves in her Cosmic Hearth and sealed her Domain to keep him trapped inside.

Again, lightning that bypassed her durability struck her, and her fingers under her gauntlets stiffened in the same instant she crossed her arms in front of her chest to block another full-powered kick from Salenor.

The impact doubled again like before, and her gauntlets shattered completely, Miranda’s eyes widening in shock as she saw that her left fingers had all turned to stone.

’Petrification too! Damn it, Pyroclasmic Surge!’

The ground beneath Salenor cracked open as Miranda channelled the power of volcanic eruptions through her Aspect, unleashing an eruption of molten lava and purple fire that consumed everything in its path, but Salenor somehow avoided the point-blank attack with nothing but a few burns on his skin.

Miranda didn’t care about him as she instantly sliced off her left wrist, which was now completely petrified, regenerating a new wrist in an instant.

Black lightning arced around her as she turned and swung her sword, her eyes closed to avoid meeting Salenor’s eyes, but unfortunately, she only needed to meet them once for him to apply the power of his Dictum.

Her right arm, swinging her blade to meet Salenor’s dagger, instantly turned black and began to melt like acid had been poured on it, weakening her grip and allowing Salenor’s dagger to travel unimpeded towards her neck.

’Blazing Rampart! Infernal Shockwave!’

A wall of purple fire erupted between her and Salenor, blocking his dagger from reaching her neck, and a shockwave of purple fire followed, blasting back the Supreme and sending him flying through space.